GR translation: her glassy wastes

Mark Kohut markekohut at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 29 15:14:23 CDT 2011


I hear 'waste' here [sic] as akin to its meaning in "an expense of spirit in a waste of shame", again
Shakespeare, a sonnet, #129, I think, and before 'waste' meant anything like W.A. S.T.E.----
when waste was total not a runoff of residue, leftover garbage, so to speak
 
That segue into indifference in the line cues me to see her as spiritless, emotionless, neither good
nor bad emotions but affectless.....
 
'glassy waste' = affectlessness?
 
That is a question.

From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: GR translation: her glassy wastes

On 10/28/2011 11:48 PM, Mike Jing wrote:
> Oh, Shakespeare.  I knew he was in there somewhere.
>
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 6:23 AM, Mark Kohut<markekohut at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>> Man, proud man! Drest in a little brief authority, -. Most ignorant of what he's most
>> assur'd,. His glassy essence, - like an angry ape,.
>>      His glassy essence, like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high
>> heaven. As to make the angels weep. – William Shakespeare. ...
>>
>> 1. Characteristic of or resembling glass. 2. Lifeless; expressionless: "the face
>> changing to a demon's face with a fixed glassy grin" (Katherine Anne Porter). ...
>>
>> From: Mike Jing<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> To: Pynchon Mailing List<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 4:37 AM
>> Subject: GR translation: her glassy wastes
>>
>> P153.16-18 ...: he has to admire it, even if he can't accept her
>> glassy wastes, her appeals to a day not of wrath but of final
>> indifference...
>>
>> What exactly are "her glassy wastes"?
>>
>>
So perhaps "glassy" means not amounting to much, fragile, breakable--or, 
might it be a substitute for glossy, implying a cheap attractiveness?  
In either case, of illusory value. (Cherrycoke is not fooled)

"Wastes" probably refers to areas of desolation and damnation. 
(wastelands)  Or maybe it just means emanations.

Would Pynchon himself be able to parse these passages of the book in any 
straight forward way?

P
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